


I love you

by rethrin



Category: Franklin & Bash
Genre: Declarations Of Love, Ep 201: Strange Brew, First Kiss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-15
Updated: 2012-06-15
Packaged: 2017-11-10 22:56:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/471624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rethrin/pseuds/rethrin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Are you feeling all guilty because you locked me in a box and let them shoot at me?"</p><p>"I didn't <em>let them</em> shoot at you.  I locked you in a box, which was your idea anyway, and then they shot at you.  I couldn't stop them."</p>
            </blockquote>





	I love you

Jared asked for a beer and Peter brought him a hot chocolate instead. Jared shook his head because Peter was an idiot, but it had marshmallows and cream so he took it anyway. Peter sat down next to him on the couch. Right next to him. Jared looked at him out of the side of his eyes.

"Are you feeling all guilty because you locked me in a box and let them shoot at me?"

"I didn't _let them_ shoot at you. I locked you in a box, which was your idea anyway, and then they shot at you. I couldn't stop them."

"You didn't even try, you leapt out of the way."

"I didn't leap."

"You leapt." Jared took a long sip of hot chocolate, and licked the cream off his lip, and wiped it off his nose. "But you don't have to do the whole guilt thing, I'm good."

"I'm not doing the guilt thing." 

Jared raised his eyebrows.

"I'm not." Jared's eyebrows stayed up, and Peter conceded a little bit with a shrug that he might be edging towards the whole guilt thing. "I was running ten seconds over."

"We had a buffer of thirty seconds, you were fine. Until you let them shoot at me."

Jared lifted his legs up onto the couch, and leaned more into the curve of Peter's arm, his head in the hollow of his shoulder. Peter picked a marshmallow out of Jared's chocolate and ate it, then licked his fingers clean.

"I didn't _let them_ shoot at you. They didn't ask." 

Peter's arm tightened around Jared as he spoke, and he frowned. The gunshot - followed by a swirling rush of water, broken glass, Jared Franklin and at least a little blood - hadn't been the calmest few minutes of Peter's life.

Jared looked at him again and sighed, with a smile. Peter was not good with blood. He squeezed Peter's arm.

"I'm fine. Nothing but a few scratches."

"I like you un-shot," Peter said, as if it was a new life philosophy he was settling on.

Jared nodded. He could live un-shot if it made Peter happier. 

They just sat for a few minutes. Peter drank his beer, and Jared finished his chocolate. He was kind of sleepy, listened to Peter breathing, thought he might fall asleep here for a minute perhaps.

"So you weren't worried in the tank?"

"Nope."

"You looked kind of panicked."

"Nope."

"Okay." Peter took a deep breath that made his chest rise and fall. "Jared, when you said, you know, you did the hand thing and..."

Jared tensed a little bit, frowned a little bit. He knew that tone of voice. It was a kind of warning, like he'd done something awkward. 

"Yeah, they liked that, huh?"

"They?" Peter tensed a little under Jared's cheek.

"A nice bit of bromance for the jury."

Peter took his arm away, making Jared sit up away from him. 

"Bromance? Right." He gave a huff of air that Jared didn't really get. 

Jared didn't know if Peter had taken a dislike to the word, or to the concept, because he'd never had trouble with either before now. Snakes started coiling in Jared's stomach at the mere suggestion that Peter might take that away. 

"Dude, what's..?"

Peter stared at him for a second. Then shook his head. "I just thought that when you said-"

Jared cut him off. "It wasn't anything, okay. Really." He stood up, because he couldn't do this, they didn't _need_ to do this. "I'm more tired than I thought, I'm going to go to bed."

Peter looked at him for a second, like he was going to throttle him, then he looked away instead. "Okay. Night."

Jared escaped to his room. 

He'd fucked up a bit in the tank, he knew that, panicked a little. But he'd done things like that before. He'd touched Peter a moment too long, or watched his mouth too obviously when he was drinking a beer, or his hands when he played guitar. And Peter would look at him like he could tell. Usually he'd just let it pass, but sometimes he'd try to talk about it. Jared knew he'd be kind but Jared didn't want him to be kind and let Jared down easy, Jared wanted never ever ever to have to talk about it ever. So Jared would laugh it off, make it clear it was just a joke, and Peter would let him. That was one of their unspoken arrangements and Jared liked it just fine. 

He lay in bed, not even close to sleep. He knew it would be okay again in the morning. He just needed to sleep and everything would be okay when he woke up. 

  


~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

  


Peter wasn't in the office all morning, and didn't answer his phone. When he didn't show up at the diner for lunch Jared started writing him text messages that he didn't send because he couldn't get the tone right, and didn't know what he was saying. Jared was starting to feel really cold in his middle.

The AquaCage case was scheduled to finish in the afternoon, and Jared turned up prepared to do the closing himself if Peter wasn't even going to show because of whatever this was that was happening.

Peter was there, though. He didn't really look at Jared. But he didn't ignore him either. He just kept busy and answered questions with monosyllables and didn't respond to jokes. He shrugged it off when Jared asked where he'd been and what was going on. 

Peter did all the heavy lifting in court. They'd basically won it yesterday; no jury was going to find for the company after they'd nearly killed him right in front of them. He sat and looked appropriately small and cute as Peter questioned the suit from AquaCage about their contracts with China, ran circles around him, and made the jury smile. They'd won and everyone knew it. The defence attorney announced their case done, with a heavy sigh and a pessimistic hunch to his shoulders. Closing arguments were a breeze and the jury came back with a guilty verdict and a decent settlement amount after twenty minutes. 

The judge nodded, satisfied. "I'd like to give my thanks to members of the-" 

"Actually, your honour," Peter was standing, holding up a hand. "There is one other matter we need to deal with before the case is closed."

Jared frowned, confused. 

"And what's that, Mr Bash?"

"Yes," Jared added, "What is that?"

Peter didn't even glance at him, kept looking at the judge. 

"It's my belief, your honour, that my co-counsel is guilty of leading the court astray."

Jared gaped. He looked at Peter, looked at the judge, then back at Peter.

"What are you doing?" he asked, but Peter still wasn't looking at him. He cycled through everything that had ever happened ever, looking for something to suggest where Peter was going to go with this.

"Your co-counsel?" The judge asked. "You want to report him for suborning perjury?"

"No." Peter held out his hands to the jury. "I can assure the jury that none of Mr Franklin's actions have had any effect on the case in hand, they need have absolutely no worry that the verdict they returned was anything but fair and just. 

"But," he turned to the judge, "Mr Franklin lied to the court, and the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct states that a lawyer "shall not knowingly make a false statement of material fact." The punishment for such is a disciplinary hearing which might result in disbarment, I believe."

"You want to get your colleague disbarred."

Jared stared at him, then stared at the judge.

"That would be up to the court to decide, but I would like it to be made a matter of public record," Peter said, ignoring Jared.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Jared hissed.

"If you have questions about your co-counsel's behaviour you can bring them up in chambers, this is not the time."

"There are precedents for doing this while the judge and jury are still in place, your honour, and I'd be grateful for the court allowing that here." 

He opened a folder to find his notes of the precedent cases, but the judge sighed and looked at his watch. 

"I am well aware of the precedents, thank you. Mr Bash, I am going to give you five minutes to make some sense of this, and it had better not be another of your stunts."

"Thank you, your honour. I'd like to call Jared Franklin to the stand?"

The judge nodded, but Jared didn't move, just stared. 

Peter went and stood in the middle of court, ready to cross-examine him. Ready to put him on trial for misleading the court in statements of fact. And they'd already won the case, which meant this wasn't a stunt Peter had thought of last minute, this was something else.

"Mr Franklin, please." The judge gestured to the witness box.

Jared stood up and tried to remember how lawyering worked. "Your honour, I'd like to ask that I be given details of the charges Mr Bash wishes to bring against me, and time to prepare-"

The judge cut him off. "Let's just get on with this, I assure you no decisions will be made here today. We'll just hear what he has to say, then I'm going to charge you both with contempt for wasting the court's time, and the jury can all go home. Come on."

Jared stared at Peter for a minute, Peter looked back at him, absolutely nothing in his face. 

Jared swallowed, and walked over to the witness stand, smiling nervously at the jury. He was sworn in.

"I'd like the court reporter to read back some of the transcript from yesterday, from when Mr Franklin was in the tank. The moment when the lock failed to open," Peter said, buttoning his jacket.

The court reporter dutifully flicked back to yesterday's transcript and read aloud: 

"Mr Bash: Oh my god. Your locks are defective too?  
Mr Rosent: No.  
Mr Bash: Does anything that comes out of your factory work?  
Mr Rosent: It doesn't come out of my factory, it comes from China.  
Mr Franklin: I love you.  
Mr Bash: China? But-"

"Thank you," Peter interrupted. He turned back to Jared. "You accept the transcript as it's been written?"

Jared just stared. "You can't be serious."

Peter barely reacted. "You do accept the transcript is accurate? Although you only mouthed the words, the court wasn't mistaken?"

Jared looked to the judge, but he just gestured for Jared to get on with it.

"I accept it." So, apparently this was the worst day of his life. 

"Please tell the jury what you told me last night regarding your statement in the transcript."

Jared shifted in his chair, and took a breath. 

Peter was just looking at him, his mouth tight, his head tilted. "The court's waiting, Mr Franklin." 

"Peter, what's-"

"Your honour, please instruct the witness to answer the question."

Jared glared at the judge. 

"Your honour, I'd like to suggest that Mr Bash be held in contempt of court for being an ass."

He clenched his teeth, turned his glare to Peter. Who he was going to kill the moment they were finished here. Peter glared back. 

"Mr Franklin," Judge Flannigan said, "I sympathise with your despair of your co-counsel, but a serious allegation has been raised against you, so if you would just answer his question."

"What was the question?"

Peter smiled, as if Jared was just any other witness he was enjoying torturing. "I'd like you to tell the court what you told me when I asked you last night about your statement yesterday."

"I didn't tell you it wasn't true."

"What did you tell me?"

"I told you that..." He struggled for a while to actually remember. "That it was said in... friendship."

"You told me that you only said it in the hopes the jury would find you cute, that you weren't really worried about drowning, and that you didn't really mean it."

"Objection. He's putting words into my mouth," Jared said, keeping his voice cold while he could feel his skin boiling.

"You can't object, you're the witness," Peter said.

"And I don't have counsel present, because you're being petty."

"I have to agree with the witness, Mr Bash. He has every right to object, and the objection is sustained. Am I honestly to understand that you've kept us all here because Mr Franklin has somehow misrepresented his feelings towards you?"

He sounded quietly furious. Peter answered him, without moving his eyes from Jared. 

"I think it goes deeper than that, your honour, and I believe I have three minutes remaining to bring my case?"

The judge sighed. "Very well, go ahead."

"Thank you." He took one step closer to Jared, and then he paused, as if something had just come to him. "Although it's still possible I don't have a case to bring."

He looked at Jared and his eyes were blank, cold almost, but there was something in the set of his jaw that was nervous, tense. 

" _Do_ you love me, Mr Franklin?"

Jared stared. He sat perfectly still. 

"It's a simple question."

Peter's eyes flicked to the floor, and he kept them there for a second too long. Enough that Jared knew suddenly that he was terrified, close to losing himself a little. But Peter forced his eyes back to Jared, looked steady again.

"I'm allowed to love you." 

Jared heard it coming out of his mouth, even though all he'd meant to say was that Peter could go screw himself. His voice was small, but he knew the court reporter had got it, he could hear the machine as she took it down. 

Peter gave the barest of nods, yes, Jared was allowed to love him. And Jared swirled with confusion. 

"But to be clear it is your testimony that your love is only that of a friend, and nothing more?"

Jared kept looking right into Peter's eyes, looking to find a clue about why he was doing this, and his eyes weren't blank any more, but Jared couldn't read them. He knew Peter must know that he loved him in ways that had nothing to do with 'only'. 

"You are under oath, Jared," Peter said, quietly, and his hands were on the witness box, right in front of him, and he was looking at him, and he was doing all of this on purpose, which was nearly unimaginably cruel. Jared knew that he wasn't supposed to be in love with Peter, and he knew that it was awkward, but Peter didn't hate him, or hadn't ever used to hate him.

"Do you hate me now?" 

Peter shook his head, just plain dismissing that. And quickly enough that Jared didn't even begin to doubt him. 

"Are you in love with me?"

His eyes didn't look remotely angry now, they just looked soft and warm, and they were urging Jared to please go with him, trust him, let him explain all of this. Jared's insides twisted, fear and hope colliding. 

He nodded, his body bypassing his brain, just nodded because it was true, he was in love with him, of course he was. Peter's hand was curving around his cheek, and he was leaning close. His mouth pressed over Jared's, warm and perfect, and he licked over Jared's lip, and kissed him.

Then he pulled back just a tiny bit, and he was smiling, every inch of him, relieved and maybe a bit amazed. Like he'd just jumped from a plane, and only by the purest of luck found he had a parachute in his pocket. And he was looking at Jared like Jared was an idiot. But a really really beautiful idiot that Peter loved a lot.

"Oh," Jared said, and he knew he was blushing.

"Yeah," Peter said, like Jared should have worked this out ages ago.

Jared smiled back, had time to give half an almost laugh before Peter was kissing him again, hand tangled in his hair, pulling him closer, and Peter's lips were soft and his mouth was heaven and he tasted of warm and safe and good, and Jared melted into him a little bit. He put a hand on Peter's chest, and his other on his arm, and held him there, afraid he'd disappear. After a minute or so he could hear applause, and Peter smiled against his mouth.

"Order, please," Judge Flannigan hit his gavel. "Mr Bash, you will please refrain from kissing the witness."

Peter stopped as ordered, but he kept his forehead resting gently against Jared's, and looked into his eyes as he spoke. "But he's my witness, your honour."

Jared laughed gently at that, because it was sappy but sweet, and he kissed Peter again. He heard the jury and rest of the court murmuring, some laughter, some sighs, some cheers. Peter was still smiling, and Jared kissed him. 

He put everything he could into it, and it wasn't enough, was never going to be able to say everything Jared meant and needed and wanted and felt. But when he stopped kissing him Peter was flushed, and he rocked on his feet just slightly, and then he nodded, like it was okay and he got it, and Jared thought he probably did. 

"Mr. Bash." 

Judge Flannigan sounded unhappy in the extreme. Jared and Peter both frowned at him, confused by unhappiness. But seeing his expression Peter stood up slightly straighter, back from the witness box, put on his most innocent face. 

"I take it this little adventure of ours was indeed nothing more than an elaborate seduction?" 

Peter nodded blankly, like he didn't see the judge's problem. Jared was having trouble with that himself.

"Nothing more, in fact, than a complete waste of the court's time," the judge continued.

"I needed him under oath, your honour," Peter said, like that was obvious.

"You didn't, you could have just asked me," Jared said. He glanced around the court room. "You know, when we were alone somewhere alone."

Peter turned to him and Jared thought he was trying to look sceptical, but he was actually just smiling, and Jared looked at his mouth and thought it had been a really long time since he last kissed him. 

"I asked you all the time, and you always said it was nothing, or made a joke. I asked you last night and you ran away."

"Oh. Well I didn't think you wanted me to want to-"

"Gentlemen." The judge raised his gavel again. Peter and Jared obediently shut up and turned back to him. "Mr Franklin, you are released, please leave the witness stand. Bailiffs, if you'll please escort Mr Bash to-"

"What? No. Objection," Jared called, reaching forward to take hold of Peter's sleeve, pulling him closer to the witness box, and away from the bailiffs. "Peter, Mr Bash hasn't... that is, he was mostly... what I mean to say... you shouldn't lock him up, please, for reasons. Legal reasons. Judge, your honour."

Peter laughed at him, leaned in and kissed him again, really quick, before the judge could hit his gavel.

"Dude, you are the worst lawyer," Peter said, and stroked his hair, and Jared just nodded at him like whatever, because it wasn't his fault his brain wasn't entirely functioning. Peter was awesome.

The judge looked at them both silently for a long minute.

"I take it, Mr Franklin, that you are not pressing any charges against Mr Bash for molesting you on the witness stand?"

Jared grinned at the judge, then at Peter, then at the judge again and shook his head.

"And you'd like to repeal your request that I hold him in contempt for being, and I quote, 'an ass'?"

Jared nodded. 

"And if I let both of you off without charge you will give me your assurance that if I ever have the misfortune to see either of you in my court again you will both be on your absolute best behaviour? Professional behaviour."

They both nodded, very very sincerely.

"No drowning, no gunshots, no flooding, no overblown romantic gestures of love, no props, no dramatics, no fireworks, no fire, no tricks, no costumes, no kissing, no canoodling, no marching bands or dance troupes..."

The judge continued for a while, and Peter and Jared shook their heads for each item, wincing at each other when he took away something really cool, raising eyebrows when he gave them ideas. And mentally cataloguing what was left to them. When he finished they looked at each other and silently agreed that he'd been quite thorough. Not thorough enough that they wouldn't be able to have a little fun still, but they were sort of impressed.

"We absolutely promise, your honour," Jared said, and Peter agreed.

Then Peter looked at Jared again, and smiled at him, and Jared smiled back. He sighed as Peter pulled him nearer, and stroked through his hair again. Jared put his hand on the side of Peter's throat, and stroked his thumb over Peter's jaw. He was just going to kiss him for a second, that was all, the judge wouldn't mind that, couldn't possibly mind that because it was probably some sort of human rights violation not to let people kiss Peter Bash if they really really needed to.

But the judge coughed, ominously, and Jared quickly pulled his hand away making Peter moan gently, which was not far from the best noise Jared had ever heard in his life ever.

Peter caught hold of his hand and held it gently.

"Your honour, I'd like to take the witness home now," Peter said, and he was staring right into Jared's eyes and Jared heard a few suggestive laughs and murmurs around the courtroom, and Peter's eyes were twinkling at him. Then Peter sucked on his lip like a fucking promise that he knew a million things about the next few hours and how mind-blowingly awesome they were going to be and Jared stood up, knocking over his chair, and nearly falling out of the box.

"Yes, we, uh, we should go."

He went round to Peter and walked right into a full body hug. Peter even lifted him a little, and Jared didn't care, just cared that Peter's hands were warm against him, and his arms were tight, and Jared didn't have to pull away and pretend that it was nothing, he was allowed to put his hand in Peter's hair, and he was allowed to kiss his throat and whisper that he loved him. 

"Love you too," Peter said, putting him back on his feet, and Jared nodded, because he knew. 

They tuned back in and heard applause again, looked around and the court was standing, all smiling, and Jared and Peter grinned back.

The judge turned to the court reporter. "I trust you got that down?"

She nodded, grinning. "Mr Franklin: (Unintelligible)  
Mr Bash: Love you too."

Judge Flannigan nodded. "Good. Mr Bash, just to avoid us finding ourselves back here again, I'd like your confirmation on the record that you definitely meant that."

"Yes, I definitely very much meant that." 

He squeezed Jared close again for a second, and Jared's face hurt from smiling.

"Good. In that case the court is dismissed."

Jared grinned at the judge, who nodded and waved a hand that they could go, and very nearly smiled. The defence attorney congratulated them as they passed, and muttered something about how it was about time. Peter apologised to The Amazing Kevin as he picked up his bag and papers, but Kevin just grinned and shook his head, patted them both on the back as they passed. 

Walking to the door Peter had his hand on his shoulder, sometimes moved to stroke the back of his neck, and Jared felt a lot like a teenager who had never been touched before. But not at all like a teenager, because there were a lot of very adult things he wanted to do to Peter right now. 

In the corridor Peter swung him round and kissed him again, pressed him against the wall, and kissed him stupidly gently.

"You're not mad at me?" Peter asked, smiling, and Jared knew that he could be because that had been the most stupid thing Peter had ever done, and everyone would know, and everyone would talk about it. But it was good that everyone knew because they wouldn't have to tell people, and it was good in a lot of ways that had to do with Peter's arm around his waist, and Peter's mouth. And he didn't feel mad even at all, he just felt light.

"You're an idiot."

"Yeah."

"But it's okay." 

"Good."

"We have to go home now," Jared said firmly when Peter tried to kiss him again. The other people from the court were starting to come out, and they were smiling at them, laughing because they hadn't made it even two metres down the corridor. 

Peter kissed him anyway, then tried to hold his hand as they left. 

"You're not holding my hand, Peter. We're not twelve."

"You were cute when you were twelve."

"I'm still cute."

Peter agreed with a nod, and put his arm around Jared's shoulder instead. "You let me kiss you on the witness stand."

"Yes I did."

"But I'm not allowed to hold your hand in the corridor."

"No."

"Are you going to let me hold your hand when we get home?"

"I'm going to let you do anything you want when we get home."

Jared turned and smiled innocently at Peter's choked breath. He laughed as Peter tackled him, pressing him forwards, kissing him again. The elevator doors pinged open just as they hit them and Jared nearly fell. But Peter caught him, dragged him into the car, pressed him against the wall, and Jared sent a quick prayer of thanks for the lack of other passengers, grinned happily, and kissed back.


End file.
